Where social justice & birth activism meet

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, where those transgender people who have passed on, whether due to violence, discrimination or suicide are remembered and honored.

Last week was also Transgender Awareness Week, organized by Fenway Health in Massachusetts.

I’ve been working for weeks now on a long article about the transgender community, so I’ve been knee deep in interviews and research about transgender people in the United States.

It’s depressing, to say the least. Experiences of discrimination are frighteningly widespread. Health disparities abound. Violence is a common fact of life.

But there is also much resilience, much hope, much strength in the transgender community. There is much knowledge that the arc of history bends towards justice, and that the transgender struggle lives in all of us who understand how ideas of gender limit all of us.

I wrote about discrimination and transgender health disparities last week at RH Reality Check, which you can read here. The discrimination that transgender people face impacts their health in serious ways, and when race is factored in, the disparities are even greater.

But on this day of solemnity and remembrance, let us also remember perseverance and strength. For every person who has passed on, there are many more who are thriving and surviving.

The Radical Doula Guide

About the Author

Miriam Zoila Pérez is a writer and reproductive justice activist. Pérez is currently a columnist at Colorlines, and was also an Editor at Feministing for four years. She trained as a birth doula in 2004 and a full-spectrum doula in 2010.